Category: The Gun Thing

Not just the guns, but all the stuff that goes with them

But I Thought Guns Were Eeeevil

Funny Stuff, The Gun Thing

I see with interest that inhabitants of Los Angeles, New York and other liberal shitholes have suddenly discovered the value of guns:

Americans are starting to panic-buy guns with sales rocketing across the country and shoppers lining up around the block outside hunting shops amid coronavirus fears.
California, New York and Washington – the states hardest hit by the deadly bug – all saw a massive surge in gun sales.
Some buyers sought to ‘protect their families’ from looters should food and supplies run out due to coronavirus panic.

Of course, there’s always some wiseguy ready to poke fun at their plight:

Crisis Not Being Wasted

Gummint, Marxists, The Gun Thing

“Never let a crisis go to waste [when furthering your own objectives]” is the mantra of the Socialists, and indeed they grab it whenever they can.  Thus:

The mayor of Champaign, Illinois has declared a town emergency over the Wuhan coronavirus that includes a potential ban on the sale of firearms and ammunition.
According to a local report from WAND 17, Champaign Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen has issued an executive order that would give her office “extraordinary powers.” She has issued the order despite the town and surrounding area not having a single case of the disease.

Of course, controlling gun- and ammo sales would do nothing, nada, zip and zilch to contain, cure or prevent the Wuhan virus, but the point is not about relevance, but about opportunity.

So of course the Marxists in government are going to grab at it with both greedy little hands.

I imagine that the road traffic between Champaign and, say, Indiana is going to increase rapidly, and Illinois is going to lose serious money in taxes stemming from lost gun- and ammo sales;  but that doesn’t matter, comrade, as long as the aims of The Movement are being satisfied.

And to all Commies, of course, if there’s a problem only Gummint can fix it:

“There should be a national approach to ensuring every factory that can make hand sanitizer should be on 24/7 shifts and the distribution could go to the places that need it most” [Chief Commissar of NYFC] de Blasio said.

You want to see real shortages?  Let the State decide on selection, production and distribution.  I can see the headlines already:

Government Announces 5-Year Plan To Make Hand Sanitizer;  Production Slated To Begin In Fall 2052

Government Hand Sanitizer Factory Sends 60,000 Empty Bottles To Restaurant In North Dakota;  Owner Mystified

Government Hand Sanitizer Factory Makes 2 Million Bottles Of Hand Sanitizer;  Government Trucking Center Has No Trucks Available To Deliver Them, And Government Railcars Busy Delivering Sand To Canada

Government Hand Sanitizer Factory Makes 2 Million Gallons Of Mouthwash By Mistake, But Has No Bottles On Hand To Fill Anyway;  Uses Mouthwash To Clean Factory Floor, Pours Remaining 1.99 Million Gallons Into Town Reservoir

Congress Appropriates $250 Billion For Hand Sanitizer Production;  Government Factories Only Able To Produce 20 Gallons, Total

And finally:

CDC Finds That Government-Formulated Hand Sanitizer Causes Skin To Blister;  U.S. Forced To Import Sanitizer From… China 

Let’s hear it from Comrade Stalin:

Poxy little statists.

ULD Decision Time

The Gun Thing

After weighing all the options, I purchased the ULD Boomershoot gear as follows:

  • Caliber:  .300 Win Mag.

This was the easiest choice, given my own experiences at Boomershoot and hunting in Scotland with Mr. Free Market and the gang.  In adverse conditions (rain, sleet, snow, strong winds) the .300 Win Mag beats all other chamberings by a day’s march.  As I’d made the caliber choice early on, I went ahead and ordered some boxes of “test” ammo, which I’ll be comparing to each other over the next couple weeks.  I got Spendy, Medium-Spendy and Budget (the latter, actually, is Sellier & Bellot because despite its lowly price, I’ve found this Czech ammo to be amazingly consistent in other chamberings.  I’m kinda hoping it does well, because I have a line on an amazing deal — less than $1 per round).

Whichever  gets the best grouping, however, will be purchased in Boomershoot-type quantities, and what doesn’t get used up in Idaho will be shipped to the lucky winner of the draw (because I don’t own a .300 Win Mag rifle, so I won’t be tempted to hold some back as “tax”).

So much for the cartridge.  Next, the boomstick:

  • Rifle:  Ruger M77 Hawkeye Long Range Target.

The choice was between this rifle and the Savage 110FCP, and to be honest, I couldn’t make up my mind.  Ultimately, I let availability drive the decision — and while the Savage was on back order / out-of-stock everywhere I looked, the Hawkeye was actually in stock at one of my local gun pushers FFLs nearby.  Hello, Mr. Gun Pusher.  Of course, I always have Buyer’s Dread after dropping over a grand on an untested (by me) rifle… but then I read this review of the Hawkeye, and I didn’t feel too badly about the decision.  I hate the Technik durch Plastik  appearance of the stock (I know, it’s painted laminate, which makes me feel better, but it’s still pig-ugly).  As long as it shoots better than I can shoot it… which brings me to the glass.

  • Scope:   Zeiss 6-24x50mm Conquest V4 30mm with illuminated reticle #65 and ballistic stop turret

(the crosshair is actually finer than pictured — I just enhanced it to make it clearer)

The combination of Zeiss glass plus the illuminated reticle might make all the difference to an average rifle shooter like me at distance, in crappy weather.  It’s a serious long-distance reticle (as opposed to a “pure” hunting one), and I can’t wait to get it up to speed.

Finally, the thing what holds it all together:

  • Rings:  Warne Skyline 30mm

Because the Hawkeye has an attached Picatinny rail, it makes the choice of rings quite easy.  Unfortunately, most scope mounts designed for this configuration are, to my mind, not geared towards handling hard recoil — let’s face it, 90% of the time, they’ll be holding onto a semi-auto gas action AR-15 firing the poodleshooter cartridge.  But a bolt-action rifle sending off a blitzenthumpenboomer  .300 Win Mag bullet?  It’s gotta have beeeg mahsells [/Arnie].  So I’ll be going with the trusted Warne scope mount because of its multiple-screw locking setup — and this does not look like it’s going to be jarred loose anytime soon:

I know, I know:  “But-but-but Kim, what does it look like when it’s all assembled?”

So there it is, complete with a post-boresighting gin:  now it’s time to get this show on the road.  Range report to follow, as soon as Doc Russia can find some spare time.  (He too has a new .300 Win Mag rifle to shake down.)

Right Up To, And Then

Marxists, The Gun Thing

I saw this meme somewhere, and realized that while true, it’s also incomplete.  See if you can figure out why:

Yeah… all of them were Marxists, in one way or another, and from that one would think, “Yeah, they’re on our side.”

And they are… right up until they come to power.  Then:

The numbers (and a couple of dates) are not quite correct in the above, but the outcomes are.  Once the Commies come to power, it’s civilian disarmament (through regulation or legislation, or both) followed shortly thereafter by massive oppression.

But you all knew that already.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Browning Gold Hunter 20ga

Gratuitous Gun Pics

I hardly ever talk about the coronavirus, and I’m heartily sick of the topic.  So here’s a pic of a gun that the idiots at Browning decided not to continue producing, the semi-automatic Browning Gold Hunter:

Connie had one of these until her health problems curtailed her shooting activities, and so I sold the thing (because I’m a bigger idiot than Browning).  I’ve regretted doing that ever since.

I loved this gun.  It had almost no recoil — certainly much less than my own Browning Sweet 16 — and many’s the day we spent shooting at clays, golf balls and hippies actual watermelons with it.  Randy Wakeman feels the same as I do:

The [Gold Hunter] 20 gauge, in particular, is just an amazingly soft shooter. Not a flyweight in standard configuration, with 7/8 oz. dove loads the recoil is exceedingly mild; you can barely feel the gun working.

He has a gripe about the Gold Hunter’s trigger, but ours was light and smooth as silk.

I have to say that if ever I stumble across one at a gun show in good condition and at a reasonable price, it’s going to come home with me faster than Carol Vorderman, seen here in RealTree camo.

(That’s called a “twofer” — Gold Hunter + Carol — by the way.  Anything  to forget about the Wuhan Virus.)

Tole Ya So Redux

SHTF, The Gun Thing

Even I get sick of myself sometimes when it comes to banging on about the need for MOAR AMMO in yer ammo lockers.

“O but Kim”, you exclaim, “I’m pretty sure I have enough ammo!  And anyway, it’s not like the godless Democrats like Obama are in control and threatening to limit ammo sales!”

And then, of course, one sees news items like this snippet (courtesy of Longtime Friend Sarah Hoyt):

As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) hits the US, it’s not just hand sanitizer and flu medications that are flying off the shelves. While Walmart and Target are running out of emergency essentials and “currently unavailable” is popping up on various Amazon searches, the rush to be prepared has also reached the ammunition industry.
Recent analysis shows that online ammunition retailer, Ammo.com, has seen a significant increase in conversions and sales since February 23, 2020. The company reports that this surge corresponds with the public concern regarding the COVID-19 virus.

Yeah… just because it isn’t hurricane season and the Socialists don’t control all three branches of government, that does not mean you should slacken in your efforts to keep yourself in fresh ammo at all times.  The sudden need for ammo can come from any direction, as the above shows.

And as any fule kno, the absolute minimum ammo level is 20,000 rounds of .22 rimfire, and 500 rounds per gun of centerfire ammo, double that if it’s a semi-auto rifle like an AR, AK, Garand, FN-FAL, G3, M1 Carbine etc.  (Note the “per-gun” level:  if you own two AR-15s, for example, that’s not one thousand rounds but two  thousand rounds of poodleshooter needed on the shelf.)  As for your carry piece:  that’s an absolute minimum of 200 rounds of self-defense ammo (usually ten boxes) and more than 1,000 rounds of practice ammo.

Lemme emphasize this, one more time:  if the whole thing goes pear-shaped, your ammo is going to save your and your family’s lives a lot more handily than a box of anti-bacterial hand-wipes or a roll of toilet paper.